Sofa bed with leg actuated section locking means



A. J. MIKOS April 30, 1968 SOFA BED WITH LEG ACTUATED SECTION'LOCKING MEANS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed June 6, 1966 A. J. MIKOS April 30, 1968 SOFA BED WITH LEG ACTUATED SECTION LOCKING MEANS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed June 6, 1966 i- 23:? m R United States Patent 3,380,083 SQFA BED WITH LEG ACTUATED SECTEGN LQCKING MEANS Aloysius J. Miiros, Skolrie, IlL, assignor to The Seng Company, a corporation of Delaware Original application June 6, 1966, Ser. No. 555,599. Divided and this application Mar. 7, 1967, Ser. No.

4 Claims. 01. s 1s ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Cross reference to related application This application is a division of Mikos application Ser. No. 555,599, filed June 6, 1966.

Background of the invention This invention relates to the provision of means for postively and completely locking the outer bed section of a four section sofa bed in parallelism with the inner bed section against movement relative thereto in an inter mediate position prior to movement of the bed frame structure into a fully folded or sofa position.

Heretofore, in typical prior art locking arrangements, the complete locking of the outer bed section relative to the inner bed section took place as the bed frame structure was moved into fully folded position. This often placed an undue strain on the links, in that it was necessary for the links to compress the mattress between the inner and outer bed sections, as well as to move the bed frame into the fully folded position. In US. Patent No. 3,165,757 to W. C. Rogers, Jr., a leg actuated overcenter locking means is disclosed and claimed which provides a solution to this problem by enabling the outer bed section to be positively locked relative to the inner bed section prior to movement of the bed sections into the fully folded position. While this construction is mechanically satisfactory it has presented some practical problems in everyday use. In the Rogers, Jr. patent, an elongate slot is provided in the outer bed section to provide a lost motion connection with the end of a locking link. It has been found that during use this arrangement has caused snagging and tearing of the bedclothes associated with the mattress supported upon the bed sections. Furthermore, buckling at the junction between the outer bed section and the hinge bed section has occurred when a force is applied to the outer end of the outer bed section as by a person sitting upon the same.

Summary The present invention provides a leg actuated locking mechanism which obviates the problems noted above in connection with the Rogers, Jr., patent and other prior art, by eliminating the elongate slot in the outer bed section, and by providing a novel linkage arrangement that positively prevents buckling of the bed structure, even when a person sits upon the outer end of the outer bed section.

Brief description of the drawing FIG. 1 is a cross sectional view through a sofa bed having the bed sections in the bed position, and illustrating a preferred embodiment of the leg locking structure of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of the bed frame structure taken generally along line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary plan view of the outer bed section in an intermediate position wherein the outer bed section is folded over the inner bed section in substantial parallelism therewith; and

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the structure illustrated FIG. 3.

Description of the preferred embodiment While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many different forms, there is shown in the drawing and will herein be described in detail one specific embodiment of the invention, with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiment illustrated. The scope of the invention will be pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring to the drawings in greater detail and especially to FIGS. 1 and 2, the sofa bed of'the present invention is provided with a wooden frame, indicated generally at 20, and a folding bed structure 30 is mounted on frame 20 by a supporting linkage means indicated genorally at 31. Bed structure 30 includes a U-shaped head or rear bed section 32, an inner bed section 33, an intermediate bed section 34, and a U-shaped outer bed section 35 which includes a front rail 35a; said sections being foldably connected in end-to-end relationship with respect to one another by means of respective pivots 36, 37 and 38.

A first supporting leg 82 is pivotally connected to the folding bed frame 30 at the junction 37 between the inner be-d section 33 and the intermediate bed section 34. A leg actuating link 83 has one end connected to the lower end of a bell crank arm 57b by pivot 84 and its opposite end connected to leg 82 by a pivot 85 at a point spaced from pivot 37. A second or outer support leg 86, in the form of a U-shaped member, is secured to the outer bed section 35 by linkage means 87 which also serves to provide means for locking the outer bed section 35 in parallelism with inner bed section 33 and against movement relative thereto.

Linkage means 87 includes a first link 88 connected at one end by a pivot 89 to outer bed section 35, and the opposite end of link 88 is connected by a pivot 90 to leg 86. Linkage means 87 includes a second link 91 connected at one end by pivot 92 to the upper end of leg 86, and connected intermediate its ends by a pivot 93 to outer bed section 35. The opposite end of link 91 is connected to one end of a third link 94 of linkage means 87 by a pivot 95, and the opposite end of link 94 is connected to the intermediate bed section 34 by a pivot 96. Linkage means 87 further includes a fourth link 97 connected at one end by a pivot 98 to link 94 intermediate the ends thereof and adjacent to pivot 96. The opposite end of link 97 is connected by a pivot 99 to a fifth link 100 of linkage means 87, and link 100 has one end pivotally connected to the junction between intermediate bed section 34 and outer bed section 35 and the opposite end is connected by a lost motion connection means 101 to the inner bed section 33. The lost motion connection means 101 includes an elongate slot 102 in inner bed section 35, which slidably receives a pin 103 carried by one end of link 100. The pivotal connection 99 of link 97 to link 100 is adjacent to, but spaced from, pin 103. The outer bed section 35 may be locked in parallelism with inner bed section 33 by pivoting leg 86 to move pivot 90 to a position in alignment with, or past, a line between pivots 89 and 92. In this position, an upward lifting force on outer bed section 35 tends to pivot link 91 in a clockwise direction (FIG. 4), and this force cannot pivot leg 86 because of the location of pivot 90. If leg 86 is lifted to move pivot 90 past the line between pivots 89 and 92, the clockwise pivoting of link 91 caused by the lifting of outer bed section 35 will pivot link 89 in a clockwise direction, to begin unfolding of the leg 86 and allowing the inner bed section 35 to be pivoted relative to the inner bed section 33.

In the fully extended position link 88 is positioned at a slight angle with respect to a vertical line through pivot 89, and acts as a brace for outer bed section 35. Link 91 is slightly rearwardly and upwardly inclined, and link 94 is slightly forwardly and upwardly inclined to position pivot 95 above a line through pivots 93 and 96. This arrangement provides means for preventing buckling of the bed frame when a force is applied to the forwardmost portion of the outer bed section 35, as by someone sitting on it. More particularly, if a force is applied to the forwardmost portion of the outer bed section 35, section 35 tends to pivot downwardly about pivot 38, which in turn transmits a downward force to link 94 through link 91 and pivot 95. Thus, a four bar linkage means is defined by the span of section 35 between pivots 38 and 93, the portion of link 91 between pivots 93 and 95, link 94, and the span of intermediate bed section 34 between pivots 96 and 38. Since the distance between pivots 95 and 96 is greater than the distance between pivots 38 and 93, link 91 will pivot in a counterclockwise direction when a force is applied to the outermost portion of section 35. Thus, pivot 95 will tend to move downwardly, and a force will be applied through link 94 downwardly to bed section 34 to prevent the same from buckling.

I claim:

1. In a sofa bed having bed frame structure including pivotally interconnected inner, intermediate and outer bed sections movable from an extended position wherein said sections are generally horizontally aligned to an intermediate position wherein said outer bed section is folded over said intermediate bed section in substantial parallelism therewith and said intermediate bed section extends generally upright therebetween, means for locking said outer bed section in substantial parallelism with said inner bed section including, a leg adapted to support said bed structure in said extended position, said leg being movable to a locking position when said bed structure is in said intermediate posi ion, a guide link pivotally connected to said intermediate bed section, a support link pivotally connected at one end to said leg intermediate the ends thereof and pivotally connected at the other end to said outer bed section, and a leg driving link pivotally connected intermediate its ends to said outer bed section and having one end pivotally connected to one end of said leg and the other end pivotally connected to one end of said guide link, the pivotal connection between said support link and said leg being movable to a position at least in alignment with a line between the pivotal connection of said support link to said outer bed section and the pivotal connection of said leg to said driving link in response to movement of said leg to locking position, whereby said outer bed section may be locked relative to said outer bed section by moving said leg to locking position.

2. The combination of claim 1 including means for rotating said guide link upon movement of said leg out of locking position and pivoting of said outer bed section relative to said inner bed section; said means comprising, a motion transmitting link connected at one end to said intermediate bed section and connected at the other end to said inner bed section by lost motion means, and a drive link connected between said motion transmitting link and said guide link.

3. The combination of claim 1 wherein the pivotal connection between said leg driving link and said guide link is disposed above a line through the pivotal connection between said leg driving link and outer bed section and the pivotal connection between said guide link intermediate bed section when said bed sections are in the extended position, whereby a downward force is applied to said intermediate bed section if a downward force is applied to the outer end of said outer bed section.

4. The combination of claim 3 wherein the distance between the pivotal connections at opposite ends of the guide link is greater than the distance between the pivot connection between the outer and intermediate bed sections and the pivot connections between the leg driving link and outer bed section.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,840,830 7/1958 Pokorny et al 53l X 3,165,757 1/1965 Rogers 513 3,209,378 10/1965 Laemmle 5-13 CASMIR A. NUNBERG, Primary Examiner. 

